This invention relates to a solid waste trash separation system for use in tall buildings to permit the tenants to dispose of their recyclable materials so that they are separated into various bulk receptacles in the building's basement, when the trash is placed into a trash chute located on each floor. The tenant controls the trash system which permits the trash to be delivered into different containers depending upon the type of trash.
State and local governments are now requiring that trash be separated and certain portions recycled when it is disposed of, e.g., colored glass, clear glass, plastic containers, newspapers, metal cans and unrecyclable materials. While this may seem like a simple task for the average homeowner, it can be daunting when individuals living in high-rise apartment complexes are required to separate their trash. If a tenant disposes of all trash into a single, typical trash chute found in many apartment buildings, that trash empties into a single basement trash dumpster and must then be separated by building management, an often time-consuming and unpleasant task.
Various types of prior art chutes, trash receptacles and systems are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,988 (Messina) shows a recycling system using a chute. U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,615 (Johnson) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,776 (Pluss) show recycling receptacles. U.S. Pat. No. 2,792,171 (Rosset), U.S. Pat. No. 2, 177,328 (Pender), U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,766 (Sims) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,581 (Mullens) show waste disposal chutes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,403 (McDermott) shows a chute and German Patent No. 2,407,482 (Borner) shows a waste disposal system for a multi-story building. U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,152 (Ross) shows a high rise recycling system, U.S. Pat. No. 5,155,976 (Okabe et al.) show a conveyor system of dust containers used in tall buildings. U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,577 (Wilson) shows an apparatus for separating household trash. Other patents relating to recyling of materials are U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,165 (Garfield, Jr.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,577 (Clark), U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,304 (Roberts), U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,507 (Evans, Jr.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,097 (Hazelwood).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,829 (Shantzis) shows a system which uses a single chute in a multi-story building to collect into separate receptacles, different categories of wastes already separated by the tenant for recycling. A turntable carries a large receptacle for each category of waste. Control means on each floor enables a tenant to operate the turntable to position a selected receptacle beneath the turntable to receive a particular category of waste. A microprocessor controller and interlocks on the access doors prevent conflicts between floors. While this system appears suitable for its intended purposes, it does not directly dispense sorted trash into a trash compactor and/or dumpster system which is typically already in place in existing buildings. Therefore, installation of the system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,829 would render such expensive items obsolete. Alternatively, that system would require that trash from a particular receptacle be manually lifted into a compactor and dumpster system, which requires manual labor and can be injurious to a worker lifting heavy barrels of trash. This is the system which appears to be distributed by Hi-Rise Recycling Systems, Inc., 16255 N.W. 54th Avenue, Miami, Fla. under the trademark High-Rise Recycling System.
Accordingly, a need exists for a recycling trash system to be used in existing and new constructions, which utilizes a diverting mechanism between recyclables and non-recyclable waste which is emptied into a typical trash compactor and dumpster system.